Britton Lumber Company announced today it plans to rebuild its sawmill.Since the devastating fire on March 28that totaled its sawmill, the company has met with Town of Fairlee and State of Vermont representatives and have been assured that they will work closely with the company to help rebuild and to potentially save up to 40 jobs at Britton, as well as to support the many loggers, truckers and local businesses with whom we do business.
Britton Lumber PresidentRobert Moses said, “We are still in the early stages of our economic analysis and conversations with regulatory authorities and with our insurance carrier are ongoing, however we thought it was important today to tell our employees and the community that it was our intent to rebuild the sawmill.”
The company estimates that it may take as long as 18 to 24 months to rebuild due to lead times on ordering highly technological sawmill equipment, designing an efficient sawmill and working closely to comply with all regulatory and insurance requirements. “There will be many hurdles and decisions for us to consider before we can definitively commit to rebuilding, however we are looking forward to the challenge and are excited about constructing a new sawmill here in Fairlee,” said Moses.
Unfortunately as a result of our devastating fire we will not be able to retain all of our employees while we contemplate next steps. Today at all employee meetings, Mr. Moses reported that one full-time position was being eliminated and that we would not be able to employ 11 other workers while we reconstruct our sawmill. We have worked closely with the Vermont Department of Labor to insure that our affected employees are aware of all programs available to them and representatives will be onsite Monday morning to assist and advise our employees. The Company is also committed to assisting and placing our employees wherever possible.
We have been successful in obtaining a regular source of Eastern White Pine boards so that our planer mill can continue to manufacture the high quality lumber that we are known for and our wholesale distribution business is unaffected from the fire. During the last two weeks, over 80 flatbed trucks of building materials, including our own manufactured pine lumber has been distributed to customers throughout Northern New England, Massachusetts and Upstate New York.
We are so grateful for the offers of help from not only friends and strangers, but also from our fellow sawmill operators here in Northern New England. The sense of community has been heartwarming and gives us strength and energy to focus on the future.
Our Company was founded in 1946. If all goes well, we hope to announce a grand opening of a new sawmill during our 70th year.